Johnny Depp as Freddie Mercury?

To the long list of actors who’ve starred in musicians’ biopics of late, you might need to add Johnny Depp. MTV News reports that Jack Sparrow himself is in talks to play Freddie Mercury (pictured, left) in a movie being developed by Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. (I’m a bit perturbed as to why the drummer—not even the singer, but the drummer—of a Queen tribute band is the only person quoted in this report.)

Depp (at right) has played a singularly eclectic collection of real-life characters—Ed Wood, Hunter S. Thompson, Keith Richards. Still, I don’t know if I can see Depp playing the rhapsodic Queen frontman. For as wacky and over the top as Depp can sometimes be, even the flamboyance of Jack Sparrow can in no way compare to Mercury. Also, there’s the unpleasant little matter of age: Depp is 43, just two years younger than Mercury was when he died in 1991. So let’s hope this rumor is nothing more.

What are your favorite musical biopics? And can you think of someone better suited to play Freddie Mercury than Johnny Depp?